Khandaq was a nation of ancient stone and unforgiving sun. Today, it was the stage for a massacre.
Black Adam sat on his throne, watching his city burn. But it wasn't invaders or rebels. It was a monster.
Doomsday had returned.
After Elias ripped the Red Chaos Emerald from his chest in Themyscira, the beast had been cast into the Phantom Zone. But Doomsday's ability was adaptation. He had evolved immunity to the Zone. He had punched his way back into reality, landing in the Middle East with a new hunger.
He didn't just want destruction anymore. He wanted the blue creature that had hurt him.
And he had found a partner.
Black Adam, the ruler of Khandaq, saw Doomsday not as a threat, but as a weapon to be pointed at the West.
"We will break the world," Adam declared, floating above the ruins of his own palace. Lightning arced from his chest—shazam lightning, magical and divine.
Doomsday roared in agreement. He was bigger now. Spikes protruded from every joint. His skin was like armored rock. And worst of all, he was radiating a strange, digital glitch energy. He had absorbed residual Chaos energy from their last fight.
Elias arrived in a flash of blue light.
He stood on a rooftop, looking down at the two titans. He had five Chaos Emeralds now. But looking at this... it wasn't enough.
Doomsday was glitching. The reality around him was distorting.
"He's corrupted," Elias realized. "He's like the Titans in The Final Horizon. He's not just biological; he's becoming a force of digital entropy."
Elias checked his inventory.
Super Form: Insufficient Damage Output.
Strategy: Cyber Corruption Integration.
In the DLC for Sonic Frontiers, Sonic unlocked a new power. He let the cyber-corruption take over his Super form. It was risky. It turned him into a conduit of pure data destruction.
"I have to go full power," Elias said. "No holding back."
He closed his eyes. He didn't just draw on the Emeralds; he drew on the glitch. He let the static he had felt hacking the Batcomputer, the digital noise of Brainiac's ship, and the raw chaos of the universe flood into him.
"HAAAAA!"
The transformation was violent.
Gold light exploded, but it wasn't pure. It was laced with jagged blue electricity. His eyes turned a piercing, digital blue with no pupils. His golden fur was overlaid with scrolling data code.
Super Sonic 2 (Cyber Variant).
He floated up. The air around him screamed as reality tried to render his existence and failed.
"Adam!" Elias's voice was a harmonized chord of three different tones. "Step aside. That monster is unstable."
"I answer to no one!" Black Adam shouted. "SHAZAM!"
A massive bolt of magical lightning struck Elias.
Elias didn't flinch. He caught the lightning.
He crushed it in his hand, turning the magic into pixels that dissolved into the wind.
"Wrong answer."
Elias blurred. He didn't move linearly; he teleported between frames of reality.
He appeared in front of Black Adam. He delivered a kick that carried the weight of a collapsing server farm.
BOOM.
Black Adam was launched across the city, crashing through the palace walls and burying himself in the mountain behind it.
"Now you," Elias turned to Doomsday.
Doomsday roared and charged. He was faster than before—glitch-fast. He teleported, appearing behind Elias with a punch ready.
Elias didn't dodge. He activated the Starfall mechanic.
He parried.
PING.
Time froze. Doomsday hung in the air, a statue of rage.
Elias unleashed the Cyber-Rush.
He didn't throw one punch. He threw a thousand punches in a single second. Each hit wasn't physical; it was a deletion command. He was attacking Doomsday's molecular structure, trying to erase him from the code of the universe.
Blue sparks flew. Code rained from the sky.
Doomsday howled in agony as his armored skin began to pixelate and vanish.
But the monster adapted.
"GRAAAAGH!"
Doomsday exploded with energy, shattering the time freeze. He grabbed Elias by the throat.
"You... hurt..." Doomsday gurgled.
He slammed Elias into the ground. The impact cracked the tectonic plate beneath Khandaq.
Elias coughed, his cyber-aura flickering. "Strong..."
Black Adam returned, flying at Mach 500. "Die, invader!"
Adam and Doomsday attacked together. Magic lightning and biological force.
Elias was being crushed.
System Warning: Corruption Level 80%.
Option: Discharge.
"Fine," Elias gritted his teeth. "You want power? take it all!"
He focused the cyber-corruption into his eyes.
Master Koco Trial: Final Spark.
He screamed.
A beam of pure, white-blue energy erupted from his body. It was a laser of absolute destruction.
It hit Black Adam. The magic of Shazam couldn't hold it back. Adam was blasted out of the sky, his god-like invulnerability stripped away by the reality-warping beam. He fell, unconscious, his powers short-circuited.
Then Elias turned the beam on Doomsday.
"DELETE!"
Doomsday tried to fight it. He tried to evolve. But you can't evolve against a command line.
The beam consumed him. Doomsday's body turned white, then broke apart into cubes of data. He roared one last time before he shattered into a million pixels.
The beam faded.
Elias hovered in the silence of the ruined city.
His golden form was flickering. The blue electricity was arcing painfully across his skin. He looked at his hands. They were translucent, glitching in and out of existence.
"Too much," Elias whispered.
He fell.
He hit the sand of Khandaq, his Super form vanishing. He lay there in his base form, smoke rising from his body.
A glowing green stone lay in the sand where Doomsday had been—the Green Chaos Emerald. It had been fueling the monster's resurrection, hidden inside him.
Elias crawled over to it. His fingers were numb. He grabbed the Emerald.
"Six," he wheezed.
He looked up. The Justice League Watchtower was visible in the sky—a tiny star. They had definitely seen that light show.
"One left," Elias closed his eyes. "And I know who has it."
He passed out, clutching the Emerald, as the dust of Khandaq settled over him.